If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Cleveland Cavaliers @ New York Knicks 03.31 7:30PM

The New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers are dealing with major issues at point guard after ugly performances to start their weekends.

It's unclear if the Knicks' Jeremy Lin or the Cavaliers' Kyrie Irving will be on the court Saturday night when these teams meet at Madison Square Garden.

Lin has missed the last three games for New York (26-26) with a sore left knee. The Knicks won the first two games without him before they had 18 turnovers that led to 27 points for Atlanta in a 100-90 road loss Friday.
Baron Davis continued to struggle filling in for Lin with four points on 2-of-8 shooting with four assists and four turnovers. Davis looked sluggish throughout, and coach Mike Woodson sounded like he wants to look elsewhere for better point guard play Saturday.
"I gotta start thinking about Toney Douglas playing a little bit and probably extending (Mike) Bibby a little bit more," Woodson said.
Irving, meanwhile, left Friday's 121-84 loss to Milwaukee with a sprained right shoulder. He sat out the entire fourth quarter after getting injured in the second when fighting through a screen.
"There's a lot of pain in my shoulder right now," he said. "I'm taking a lot of Advil and anti-inflammatories and just trying to get through it."
Irving, who scored a game-high 29 points and leads all rookies with 18.9 per game, said no X-rays were taken Friday and planned on joining the team on its flight to New York.
"I'm really not trying to miss any more games especially winding down the season," he said. "It all depends on how I feel in the morning."
The loss by Cleveland (17-32) helped Milwaukee move within 1 1/2 games of New York for the Eastern Conference's eighth and final playoff spot. The Knicks trail seventh-place Philadelphia by 2 1/2 games.
"We just got to go back home now and prepare for Cleveland and put ourselves back in position," Woodson said. "I think Milwaukee won tonight and Philly got beat tonight so nobody's going anywhere so we gotta just handle our business."
Carmelo Anthony scored 36 points and is averaging 29.7 in the three games Lin has missed. New York also continues to play without forward Amare Stoudemire (bulging disk).
The Knicks are 6-0 at home under Woodson, winning by an average of 21.5 points. New York last won seven straight at MSG from Jan. 26-March 2, 2007.
Cleveland has matched its longest slide of the season at six and hasn't dropped seven in a row since its NBA-record 26-game skid last season.
The Bucks' 56.8 percent shooting was the second-worst mark allowed by the Cavs this season.
"After a loss like this, I would hope the guys are real upset with how we played," coach Byron Scott said. "The only way you can do it is come back and play a lot harder. You've got to take it out on somebody. You can't take it out on your teammates. You've got to take it out on another team."
These teams have split two 2011-12 meetings, with each winning at home.[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

I say give Shump a run at the 1. Force his game in to some added versatility offensively by giving him the reins of the offense ~ all he need do is get Melo the ball under Woodson; not that I'm complaining.

After Woody's ridiculous coaching over his ex-Hawks team....in the first game of a back to back really need some deep-deep evaluation.

Woody coaching was precisely on par of Dantoni's poor coaching in the Hawks game, by using a 7+ man rotation, very poor substitution, and never calling a time-out after PG-Davis made 2 or 3 consistent bad decision-making mistakes, or call a time-out after Tyson Chandler consistent blunder of mistakes letting the Hawks backup C-Pachullia dominate the paint & glass (while Hawks starting C-Horford was DNP to injury).......

Woody only gave 6.10 Jorts 8 minutes of playingtime vs the Hawks....
WTF was going through Woody's mind when this was the first game of a back to back....in those 8 minutes Jorts was dominating the paint boxing-out, rebounding, shotblocking, steals, picking up fouls, and best of all hitting all his foul shots. Jorts was hot and running at the same speed as Shump to get a dunk....And why would u give JR Smith 33 minutes of playingtime vs the Hawks? WTH could JRSmith do to Joe Johnson & Josh Smith on offense/defense....nothing! Thats why Green ate JRSmith up...

I sincerely hope we don't put up a display similar to that of the Hawks game. Woodson changed the offensive approach entirely and it was ugly, boring, and ineffective. This sort of offence will not win you too many games, particularly when your defence isn't present. Get some more shots for Novak tonight will you.

Melo & Shump play like they have lately. JR start making shot, or if they don't go today either then shoot less. BD step it up, don't commit bad turnovers. Chandler step it up defensively and be as dominant as we know him. Novak get open more than last night. Everyone hit their damn FTs, and we got this game in our pocket